


Real Love

by floralathena



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reality Show, F/F, F/M, M/M, More characters and pairings to be added as the story progresses, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 16:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4187289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floralathena/pseuds/floralathena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"New next fall from the Stark channel, Real Love is set to showcase a diverse group of people competing, getting to know each other, and falling in love. Go online to stark.com to sign up today!"<br/>Matt scoffed. "Because diversity means a bunch of able-bodied white people. I don't know why you even watch the Stark channel, Karen."<br/>"You know, Matt, I've got an idea..."</p><p>(Abandoned, unlikely to ever be continued. Sorry!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Real Love

"This is ridiculous."

Karen sighs. "Look, Matt, hundreds, if not thousands of people apply to these shows every season. Either you don't get chosen and you don't have to worry about it, or you do get chosen and you have a place to live, free food, and a chance to advertise your services, not to mention the chance of kissing some seriously cute girls."

"You sure _you_ don't want to sign up?"

"My boss would never let me off for that, and I could never afford to quit for it. Come on, Matt, it's the perfect time for you! Consider it, at least. I'll fill the whole thing out with whatever you tell me, no lies."

Matthew Murdock stayed silent (or about as silent as a human could be without actually being dead) for a minute or so before nodding, placing a hand on Karen's shoulder.

"Fine. Just take a good picture for the application. I’m hopeless at aiming a camera."

Karen made a shrill little noise somewhere between a shriek and a squeal.

"YES! You really won't regret this, Matt. I’m gonna have to make a video, too, though."

Matt smiled in the general direction he knew Karen's face to be, glad to have made his closest friend happy with pretty much no risk at all on his part. Who wanted a struggling, blind, Catholic orphan on a reality show? He would certainly be a nuisance. Confident in his immunity, Matt grabbed his phone while Karen began opening take-out menus on the counter.

* * *

“Hey, Jim, come look at this!”

“Yeah?”

“Blind guy sent in a video. Wanna watch it with me?”

“... Fine. Just don’t laugh at the poor guy if the lighting’s bad or something, though.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Get your ass over here.”

Sarah pressed play. The screen showed an extremely handsome man in a suit and dark glasses, standing in a brightly lit apartment. A huge, neon billboard was outside his window. Jim spotted a white cane leaning on a dull, unremarkable sofa in the background. A female voice came from behind the camera.

“We’re rolling. Go, Matt.”

The blind man, Matt, smiled, tilting his head down a little. _“Hello. My name is Matthew Murdock, or  Matt, and I would like to be on the pilot season of Real Love. I’m twenty-five years old and I’ve just recently graduated from Columbia Law. I know that the instructions said no sunglasses, but most people find it unsettling to look into eyes that can’t look back.”_

He said this with a small chuckle. Jim began seriously considering the man. Audiences would eat him up, and the other contestants they had snagged for this season would likely be charmed as well.

_“I’m a devout Catholic and I live alone in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. This is my apartment. I’ve been told it’s not exactly pretty, and the neon sign turns most people off, so I got a fairly good deal. Save a ton on electricity as well, considering how rarely I turn all the lights on. My home is very important to me, and I try to do as much as I can to make my community a better place. That’s all the preliminary information I had prepared, so, Karen, would you like to read off the questions?”_

Behind the camera, somebody cleared their throat.

_“Matty, could you tilt your head up a little? Great! Okay, give them your dating history. Have you ever been in love or had a really interesting first date?”_

Matt brushed a stray hair off his forehead, fixing his now-immaculate hairstyle. The man was pretty well put together, all things considered. His friend behind the camera probably helped him out.

_“Well, I’ve never really been in love. Dating is a bit difficult for me. A lot of people will go out with me because they pity me or on a dare. I’ve been told the Catholicism is a turn-off for certain kinds of people as well. Other people also tend to get hung up on looks, but the way somebody looks on the outside makes no difference to me. Kindness, humor, compassion, and personality are the things that count, you know? My longest relationship only lasted about two months before we realized there just wasn’t much in common. That's really all on my lackluster dating history.”_

_“Okay, Matt. Describe your fantasy date. If you could go anywhere, what would you do, what would you eat?”_

Matt gave a charming smile, facing slightly downwards again before “looking” back up to the camera. He clearly learned quickly from his friend’s correction.

_“I would love to do whatever my significant other wished. I don’t need anything fancy to have a nice time. Anywhere we could talk for a while and have some good food would be absolutely amazing. However, movies and art museums probably wouldn’t be the best choices.”_

He chuckled again. Okay, at this point, Jim was falling in love with the guy.

_“Karen, could you read the next question?”_

_“Um… Tell them about your family.”_

Matt’s beautiful, brilliant smile dimmed. His face turned serious.

_“My father was a boxer, Battlin' Jack Murdock. It was always just the two of us. He always loved me with everything he had. Went out of his way to make as much money as possible any way he could to help me after the accident that blinded me. After his, um, death, I grew up in an orphanage. I don’t have any siblings. The closest thing to family I have now is my lovely friend Karen behind the camera.”_

“Oh shit, is he about to cry?”

“Dude, shut up.”

_“... Love you, Matty. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?”_

_“I would love to visit Europe. It would be amazing to experience so many different cultures. France and Italy are known for amazing food, and I think experiencing that with a loved one could be wonderful.”_

“We totally need to accept this guy.”

“I’ll say.”

_“Last question. Do you have any hobbies or special talents? Feel free to show off.”_

_“I don’t think memorizing legal precedent and arguing cases will work well in a ten-minute video.”_

_“We could always go to the gym.”_

The camera cut to an empty gym. It was small and dingy, but the gym itself wasn’t really important. Blind Orphan Guy was Ripped. As. Hell.

_“The only reason I’m doing this is because I doubt anybody would keep watching for this long.”_

_“Yeah, yeah, shut up and beat the shit out of an inanimate object.”_

Jim and Sarah both leaned in to watch as Matt Murdock began throwing punches. He never missed or faltered. His muscles rippled as sweat dripped down his chest, and holy shit would this guy be amazing for ratings.

“We’re getting him.”

“Move over, Bachelor, there’s a new show on the block!”

Sarah and Jim high-fived. Real Love was about to be the most successful show in the history of their network.

* * *

Apparently, struggling, blind, Catholic orphans made for good TV. Who knew?

Apparently, Karen did.

"What did I tell you? I knew you would get chosen!"

"That is basically the exact opposite of what you said, Karen."

Matt felt a rush of air over his face, leading him to believe that Karen was waving a hand in the air.

"Details, details. Speaking of details, you need to keep me updated on all of them. I don't know how I'm gonna stand you being away for weeks."

Matt scoffed. "You're assuming that I'll last through the first two weeks. Besides, I think contestants are totally cut off from the outside world."

"Matthew Elizabeth Murdock-"

"Not my middle name, never was my middle name."

"-you are nice, cute, funny, respectful, and I totally mean this in a friend way when I say you have an ass that won't quit. You'll have to pry hotties off of you. Also, I fully expect you to find a way around that communication thing."

Karen was about 97.3 percent sure that Matt was rolling his eyes behind his dark rectangular glasses. Then again, Matt Murdock always did like to beat the odds. Minorities were kind of his thing. Going completely new places surrounded by completely new people? Not so much. It suddenly dawned on Karen how potentially terrifying that could be for Matt.

She bit her lip. "Matt, if you really don't want to do this, we can email them and say you're dropping out. My laptop's right here."

Matt gave a shaky smile, that special one of his that made Karen want to wrap him in a blanket and bake him cookies forever.

"I'll be fine, Karen. You know I can handle myself."

Karen grabbed his hand. “Yeah, here, where you know where you’re going. But you know, it’ll be a completely new place and you’ll be surrounded by strangers and there are always assholes on these shows and you know the producers try to stir up drama and you know what? This was an awful idea, it’s-”

Matt squeezed her hand and spoke with purpose.

“Karen, it’s fine. If you’re really that worried, I could maybe ask if they’ll allow you to come and work as a sort of guide. You were right. As long as I don’t act like an ass, it should work out pretty well. I’ll come away from it with a new experience and, who knows, maybe even love. It’ll be fine.”

Karen was still worried, but she let it be. _What the fuck did I just get him into?_

* * *

“Fuck off, Marci.”

“Look, I just need the one favor! I need you, one of my guys dropped out and we don’t have time to do background checks on another stranger.”

Foggy sighed. “Am I even getting paid for this?”

“You get a place to live, free food, and hot people all around you for weeks. What more could you want?”

“I don’t know, maybe a salary? A career? Security in life?”

Marci snorted. “Look, this show isn’t like the Bachelor. Well, it is, but it’s better.  You won’t be fake-competing for one girl, it’s like… Well, honestly, it’s like Big Brother meets The Bachelor meets Survivor. You spend two weeks all getting to know each other and playing drinking games, party games, etcetera for rewards. After the first two weeks, everybody chooses their top five and we tally it up. We kick off the losers nobody likes, and then it gets to the good stuff.”

“And by good stuff, you mean...?” Foggy raised an eyebrow.

“Dates, parties, fuckpads, the works.”

“If I get kicked off early, am I done?”

“Yes, now tell me you’ll do it.”

“Fine. I hate you.”

Marci gave Foggy a kiss on the cheek. “You won’t regret it, Foggy-bear.”

“Yeah, sure,” Foggy grumbled, “and I’ll totally find true love and live happily ever after.”

Foggy pushed Marci out of his apartment with a growing feeling of dread that he couldn’t shake. His life was about to get very interesting.

* * *

“Would you like to be on TV?”

Angie blinked. “If that’s some line, props to you. Never heard that one before. Now, what can I get ya?"

"It's not a line. I'm working on a new show, Real Love. You look like just the kind of person we're looking for. Oh, and I'd like a slice of blueberry pie."

"I'm assuming this involves a suspicious one-on-one audition with alcohol and a dim room. Would you like that a la mode?"

"Here's my card. Research it if you want. We're having an event this Saturday to interview potential candidates. And yes, please, that would be great."

Angie took the man's menu and business card, glancing at it as she walked back to the counter. She wasn't technically allowed to have her phone out at work, in order to "maintain the vintage atmosphere" of the diner. Angie Martinelli, however, was a habitual rule breaker. She glanced around for her manager before taking her phone out of her apron pocket. Appearing on a reality show could help jump-start her acting career…

It certainly couldn’t _hurt_.

 


End file.
